Thomas Blanchard
Born:
24 June 1788
Died: 16 Apr 1864
Thomas Blanchard, of Boston, the inventor of Blanchard's lathe for
turning irregular forms, was born in Sutton, Worcester county,
Massachusetts, June 24, 1788. His brother was engaged in manufacturing
Tacks by hand, and young Blanchard, before be was eighteen years of
age, attempted to invent a machine for making them, in which, after six
years' experiments, he succeeded so effectively that by placing in the
hopper the iron to be worked, and applying the motive power, five
hundred Tacks were made per minute with better finished heads and
points than ever had been made by hand. For this machine be secured a
patent, and sold the right of manufacturing to a company for $5,000.
His next attempt was to construct a lathe to turn Musket Barrels, with
a uniform external finish from end to end, by the combination of one
single, self-directing operation.
Notwithstanding about three inches of the
barrel at the breech is partly cylindrical and partly with flat sides,
both of them were cut by this machine, which ingeniously changed to a
vibrating motion as it approached the breech. The superintendent of the
Springfield Armory heard of this invention, and he contracted with Mr.
Blanchard for one of his machines. When it was in operation, one of the
workmen remarked that his own work of grinding the barrels was done
away with. Another, employed on the wooden stocks, which were then all
made by hand, said that Blanchard could not spoil his job, as he could
not make a machine to turn a gun stock. Blanchard answered that he was
not sure but he would think about it, and as he was driving home
through the town of Brimfield the idea of his lathe for turning
irregular forms suddenly struck him. In his emotion he shouted out, " I
have got it. I have got it!"
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Blanchard
Automated Lathe (1818)
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Wood
Bending Patent Diagram
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The principle of this
machine is that forms are turned by a pattern, the exact shape of the
object to be produced, which in every part of it is successively
brought in contact with a small friction wheel; this wheel precisely
regulates the motion of chisels arranged upon a cutting wheel acting
upon the rough block, so that as the friction wheel successively
traverses every portion of the rotating pattern, the cutting wheel
pares off the superabundant wood from end to end of the block, leaving
a precise resemblance of the model. This remarkable machine, with
modifications and improvements, is in use in the national armories as
well as in England, and in various forms is applied to many operations
in making musket stocks, such as cutting in the cavity for the lock,
barrel, ramrod, butt plates and mountings; comprising, with the turning
of the stock and barrel, no less than thirteen different machines.
Besides gun stocks, it is also applied to a great variety of objects,
such as busts, shoe lasts, handles, spikes, etc., etc.
Mr. Blanchard received no less than
twenty-four patents, including
one for bending ship timber, but we believe that even up to the time of
his decease, a year or two since, at an advanced age, he had not
realized any considerable or adequate reward for his valuable
inventions.
This is an extract from the book A History of
American Manufactures from 1608 to 1860 exhibiting the origin and
growth of the principal mechanic arts and manufactures, from the
earliest colonial period to the adoption of the Constitution, and
comprising annals of industry of the United States in machinery,
manufactures and useful arts, with a notice of important inventions,
tariffs and the results of each decennial census by John Leander
Bishop, Edwin T Freedley and Edward Young (1866).
LINKS:
The Carriage Museum Library describes
Blanchard's
patented method for bending wood, as used for carriage wheel rims.
